Human Sociobiology: the Essential EO Wilson

Chapter 2 Human Sociobiology: The Essential E.O. Wilson What is human nature? It is not the genes, which prescribe it, or culture, its ultimate product. Rather, human nature is something else for which we have only begun to find ready expression. It is the epigenetic rules, the hereditary regularities of mental development that bias cultural evolution in one direction as opposed to another, and thus connect the genes to culture. (E.O. Wilson, 1998) Paradigm shifts are refreshing new ways for humanity to understand the nature of their existence and their universe. Sadly, any challenge to the commonly held cur- rent order promises to introduce significant dissonance to most practitioners in a discipline. Those responses are no less dramatic in empirical practice than in the practice of literature, economics, politics, and the wide array of other disciplines. Thus, the more frequent response to the introduction of a new paradigm is disbelief, perceived threat, antagonism, and outright attack. This common occurrence was elegantly noted by Darwin in the conclusion of The Origin of Species (1859) when he acknowledged “... I by no means expect to convince experienced naturalists whose minds are stocked with a multitude of facts all viewed, during a long course of years, from a point of view directly opposite to mine”. Surely, as we recognize the sesquicentennary year of Darwin’s conception of biological evolution, we must acknowledge that it competes in most minds with all other creation myths (Durant, 1980). Paradigm shifts can also be ideological threats as much as they are threats to a prevailing world view, causing irrational emotional responses couched as intellectual challenges. Such responses are based on tenaciously held personal ideologies that emerge over a lifetime of personal experience and emotional investment. Fre- quently, they are reinforced by the real-life need to sustain intellectual stature and professional influence. Most regrettable are those challenges roused by political or religious ideologies that have nothing at all to do with observations that are at hand, but have everything to do with the maintenance of a personal world view. Unde- niably, true paradigm shifts are often challenged with such descriptors as controversial, untested, irresponsible, out of line with prevailing wisdom, or inconsistent with the evidence. Occasionally, the new paradigm and its proponents are publicly P. Naour, E.O. Wilson and B.F. Skinner, Developments in Primatology: 21 Progress and Prospects, DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-89462-1 2, C Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009 22 2 Human Sociobiology: The Essential E.O. Wilson castigated with inflammatory rhetoric – such as blinded by bias, racist, or sexist. E.O. Wilson was not immune from such angst. Without a doubt, his 1971 naming and establishment of sociobiology as a discipline (The Insect Societies) both quick- ened the pace of humankind’s anthropocentric demise and accelerated the perceived controversial nature of his work. Regardless of the manifestly important ground- work produced by scholars who articulated the foundations of sociobiology, it was Wilson himself who became the embodiment for its public persona. For the first time, a comprehensive paradigm, a “new synthesis,” was offered that no longer treated human social behavior and biology as separate subjects. Simply stated, sociobiology was defined by Wilson as “the systematic study of the biological basis of all forms of social behavior.” By extension, the evolution of social behavior and culture is driven by the environmental contingencies of natural selection – just like any other behavioral repertoire or physical attribute. To be sure, all behavior should necessarily be viewed as an extension of the brain as a biological entity – including the repertoire of behavior typically described as human culture. The early 1970s witnessed a growing number of scholars ready to take on the rapidly accelerating sociobiology debate that was further animated by Wilson’s Sociobiol- ogy: The New Synthesis (1975), and other publications such as Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach (Alcock, 1975), The Evolution of Behavior (Brown, 1975), Ethology: The Biology of Behavior (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1975), and The Selfish Gene (Dawkins, 1976). Predictably, this growing cadre of sociobiologists – Wilson in particular – was not immune to intellectual antagonism and verbal abuse related to sociobiology gener- ally and human sociobiology in particular. Some of the most rancorous commentary was provoked by the so-called Sociobiology Study Group, the creation of scien- tist ideologues Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin. Their Marxist critique of Wilson went so far as to accuse sociobiology of being friendly to racism, misogyny, sexism, and genocide – inspiring verbal harassment of Wilson at public appear- ances and a well-known ice water dousing at the 1978 gathering of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Readers interested in an authoritative discussion of the debate, its key players, and their work are encouraged to refer to Ullica Segerstrale’s˚ comprehensive and superbly crafted Defenders of the Truth (2000). To say the book is comprehensive somehow diminishes the magnitude of its accomplishment in meticulously capturing an essential moment in the history of science. Wilson weathered the storm of criticism and attack with his characteristic kind- ness and dignity, personal attributes that have endeared him to the larger intellectual community during his long and productive career. Perhaps wisely, he retreated from the sociobiology debate during the decade of the 1980s, following the publication of Genes, Mind and Culture (1981) to focus more of his intellectual energy on his scientific passion for ants, environmental sustainability, and his newly developing concept of biophilia – all resulting in significant publications during that time. That passage of time dulled the edge of the ideological blade brandished at Wilson. Yet, the occasional distortion (both unintended and intended) and misrepresentation of his work persist to this day – not unlike the experience of other paradigm challenging The HMS Beagle to the Modern Synthesis 23 scholars that preceded him. Now, more than three decades after the initial publication of The Insect Societies and Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Wilson’s work is more widely accepted and is rightfully recognized as the essential foundation for the rapidly expanding field of evolutionary psychology. Scholars have more recently offered Wilson a far more balanced and less biased reading, although the sociobiology conversation is far from over and its theoretical foundations far from commonly established among its scholars (Wilson and Wil- son, 2007). Certainly, since 2004 (Wilson and Holldobler),¨ he has moved experts in genetic social theory of nonhuman animals to discuss (and perhaps rescue) group selection as a key element of sociobiology. Notwithstanding these important theoretical conversations that continue, he has rightfully earned a prominent place in the larger history of science and biology. Wilson deserves an open-minded readership for and balanced evaluation of his important ideas. Thus, the major portion of this chapter provides an overview of the essential conceptual framework of Wilson’s sociobiology framed in the larger scientific and historical context of Darwinian evolutionary theory. The HMS Beagle to the Modern Synthesis Wilson’s 1975 “new synthesis” challenge was clearly an innovative and effective means to enlarge the conversation regarding the fundamental biological elements of human nature and engage the social sciences in that larger intellectual conversation. Similar to any work of this intellectual magnitude, it did not come quickly or in isolation – many great minds set the stage. First and most notable among those great minds was Charles Darwin, on whose considerable shoulders Wilson stood in order to view the new horizon of sociobiology. Thus, a description of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is the necessary starting point, followed by an account of other key contributors in the advancement of evolutionary theory in the early twentieth century, its more recent modern synthesis, and Wilson’s new synthesis. Darwin’s predilection to keenly observe the natural world is mirrored in the early life of Wilson. Darwin was naturally drawn to beetles as a child, much like Wilson was drawn to ants. Innate and wide-ranging curiosity, the naturalist’s penchant for keen observation, compulsively meticulous cataloging, and the precious ingredient of time were common elements in their early lives. Indeed, it is no irony to those familiar with their early lives and the scientific importance of their work as adults that Darwin and Wilson had so much in common. The trajectory of their intellectual lives was clearly established in their youth. A similar alignment is common to their adult lives, in that a keen focus on specific organisms at any given point in their career was complimented by enormous and unbounded appetite for all elements of the natural world. In Darwin’s case, that appetite took him from barnacles to human morality – for Wilson, from ants to great apes and human culture. 24 2 Human Sociobiology: The Essential E.O. Wilson Most biographers of Darwin identify his personal conflict in determining a professional direction for his early adult life. Medical practice and the ministry were both eliminated very quickly by Darwin as appropriate professional pursuits in favor of natural history and beetle collection. Instead, his lifelong curiosity for the natural world inspired his more active pursuit of botany and geology. His formal study of both disciplines was undertaken in a timely enough fashion for his achievement to gain notice as a prospect to serve as the unpaid naturalist for the voyage of the HMS Beagle in 1831. The 23-year old Darwin was offered that opportunity and he set sail on a 5-year voyage that originated to complete a detailed mapping of the South American coastline. The voyage included lengthy and plentiful stops along the way, enabling Darwin to build an enormous specimen collection.

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